Anil Ambani-led Reliance Private Equity is firming up plans for its third fund, with a target corpus of $300 million (INR 1,631 crore). Reliance PE would be looking exclusively at global investors for this fresh fund. Reliance Private Equity is currently investing from its second fund Reliance Alternative Investments Fund-Private Equity Scheme-I, which has a corpus of INR 930 crore and expected to be drawn down by November 2013. The firm had tapped domestic investors, besides a small number of high net worth individual (HNI) investors for this fund, among others. The Anil Ambani-led group had earlier also raised a INR 1,000-crore fund focused on the power sector, which has been completely deployed. (Business Standard)

KKR eyes Rs 1k cr deal with Shriram co: Shriram Group has hit the market to raise INR 1,000 crore, or $183 million, to propel its non-financial services businesses drawing the interest of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) and Standard Chartered Private Equity, among others. Shriram Ventures, the holding entity of the group's non-lending companies, could raise cash through a structured credit deal backed by corporate guarantees from the $9-billion southern conglomerate. Carlyle Group looked at the deal but dropped out subsequently. The combined turnover of the companies under Shriram Ventures is estimated at over $1 billion, covering sectors like real estate, retailing, cement, renewable power generation, auto components and IT. Two years ago, Shriram created separate holding entities for financial services and other businesses. (The Times Of India)

SIDBI Venture Capital Fund to invest INR 150 crore in SME in next 3-4 months: SIDBI Venture Capital Fund, a subsidiary of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), is planning to invest about INR 150 crore ($27.58 million) of SME Growth Fund in the next 3-4 months. Of the first disbursement of INR 500 crore ($ 91.96 million), the fund have already committed INR 350 crore ($64.37 million). Last year, the government had committed INR 5,000 crore India Opportunities Venture Fund with SIDBI to enhance availability of equity to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises ( MSME) sector. Meanwhile, SIDBI has signed an MoU with Social Fund of Development of Egypt to undertake SME sector Development projects in that country. (The Economic Times)

Videocon's D2H arm gets Sebi nod for INR 700 crore IPO: Bharat Business Channel, the direct-to-home TV arm of the Videocon Group, has received a go-ahead from the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), for its proposed INR 700 crore ($128.74 million) initial public offering. The company had filed its draft prospectus with Sebi in December for the proposed public offering. Sebi issued its final observations on the draft offer documents on March 15. The regulator had received the draft offer documents on December 14 through its lead manager, Enam Securities. The issue also considering to mop up INR 50 crore through a pre-IPO placement of shares to institutional investors. (Business Standard)

Temasek, Carlyle in race for Lafarge India stake: Three private equity majors are in the final stages of negotiations with Lafarge India, country arm of the France-based multinational in building materials, to acquire a minority stake. The three PE entities are the Singapore government-owned Temasek Holdings, Carlyle and Standard Chartered PE. These three are in the final stages of talks to invest $250-300 million (INR 1,358-1,629 crore) in the company. There were other PE entities which were interested at one stage, such as KKR, TPG Capital and Blackstone; these have since withdrawn. Lazard is advising Lafarge India for the fund raising. (Business Standard)

IPP proceeds to fund acquisition, capex: Thomas Cook: Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. has got Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) approval for issuing nearly 3.5 crore shares or a 14% stake through the institutional placement route. The main purpose for raising the funds through institutional placement instead of going in for an offer for sale (OFS) was that the company, could issue fresh shares and also bring in fresh equity into the company. The part of the funds raised would be used for acquisition of Ikya Human Solutions, a services sector compnay and the funds will also be used for capital expenditure. (Moneycontrol.com)